


the goth girl in the cabin

by ottozero



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Light Angst, No Beta, No Lesbians Die, No Smut, Summer Camp, church camp, goth marceline, mild homophobia, pastor's kid bubblegum, some mildly nsfw internal monologue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29277465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottozero/pseuds/ottozero
Summary: Bonnie is a secretly-gay pastor's kid just trying to enjoy the last week she gets to have at church camp. Marcy is an openly-gay goth girl whose parents forced her to go. Tension and self-discovery ensue.
Relationships: Princess Bubblegum/Marceline
Comments: 8
Kudos: 55





	1. wanna monster?

**Author's Note:**

> quick warning: although there is zero smut or explicit material in this work, at times bonnie's internal monologue *lightly* sexualizes marcy. it's mild, but I realize it could be a trigger/squick for some folks. :)
> 
> hope you enjoy! if you've got the time of day, i'd love feedback in the comments!!

Camp Galilee used to be Bonnie’s favorite part of the summer. She had seven whole days with old pen pals and long-distance friends to play games, swim, and make crafts—interrupted only by twice-a-day chapel services. The cabins were even air-conditioned! But as Bonnie got older, she enjoyed it less and less. Sure, there were old friends and fun activities at the cozy and familiar church camp. It really came down to just one thing that plagued her: deep down, Bonnie was hopelessly gay. As a pastor’s kid, she simply felt that it wasn’t acceptable.

She feared judgment from her friends and family, and she felt ashamed of—as her father would put it when talking about LGBT people—"struggling with same-sex attraction.” He always said it in that calm and reserved tone, his soft kind eyes full of nothing but blunt sympathy. It was the same way he talked about the people working through addictions in the NA program their church hosted, and about the inmates he knew from holding services in the area’s prisons.

Bonnie used to be secretly angry and confused—how was liking girls similar to committing a crime, or doing a drug? But now, she seemed to understand entirely. Her weeks spent at Camp Galilee felt like eternities spent as David in the presence of Bathsheba, and no matter how hard she prayed, she just couldn’t seem to scrub her mind clean.

When the van pulled into the lot of Camp Galilee today, Bonnie was wholly determined to make this a great week for herself and her friends. She graduated high school just a month ago, making this the last year she could be a camper. She wanted to fill her week with all her favorite old camp activities and people, perverse sexual tendencies be damned. But her plan (as well as her stomach) crumpled in on itself like a piece of note paper in the rain as soon as she caught sight of the svelte goth girl who had taken up residence in the top bunk of her bed, sprawled out in fishnets and black booty shorts, while Bonnie had been helping the younger girls unload their luggage from the van. _Great_. Bonnie supposed that she was stupid for even pretending she could spend her last summer here in the mind of an innocent, carefree ten-year-old.

But as the dinner line moves forward, she tries to school herself into a more positive mood.

“How you doin’, squirt?” the lunch lady asks. She drops a scoop of mac n’ cheese onto Bonnie’s plastic tray. “The pink hair’s different.”

“I’m good, Liza. I missed your cooking!”

“Just missed my cooking, huh? Well, I’m glad you remembered something about me, anyway.” She pretends to pout.

Bonnie giggles. “You know what I meant.”

“Yeah, yeah. Have fun tonight! We’re making your favorites in the morning.”

Bonnie grins back at Liza, who gives a wink and mouths ‘ _cinnamon rolls._ ’ She grabs her spoon, fork, napkin, and carton of white milk on her way to the table where her old friends are eating—and where, apparently, the resident goth has decided to sit. Bonnie presses her lips into a grim line for a moment, wondering if she should try and sit somewhere else, but one of her friends at the table, Grace, sees her and shouts “Bonnie!” while waving her arm around. She pretends to have just noticed them, and goes to sit where Grace has saved a spot on the bench. “Hi, guys!”

Grace finds time to speak between bites of sloppy joe. “We were just talking to Marcy here—she’s the only person in our cabin who hasn’t been to Camp Galilee before.”

“Ah. What church are you from, Marcy?” Bonnie pointedly tries—and fails—not to glance at the cleavage Marcy is showing off under the tiny black spaghetti-strap tank top she’s wearing. _That outfit’s waaay outside of dress code_ , Bonnie thinks to herself, idly wondering how she keeps her complexion so pale with all that skin exposed.

Bonnie tunes back into the conversation just in time to hear “—don’t really go to church.” Damn it, what else did Bonnie miss? She responds hurriedly and half-unconscious in what she can only assume is a “you’re-always-welcome-at-my-church” speech borne from years as a PK. There's a brief pause afterwards.

“You carry brochures?” Marcy asks, sounding amused.

Wait. What? Did she offer a brochure? Why would she offer a brochure? Her mouth is far too dry all of the sudden; she’s forcibly restraining herself from sputtering; and Marcy is openly staring at her in what appears to be equal parts bemusement, curiosity, and…and…good grief, _why_ is she looking at Bonnie that way? She’s absolutely scrambling around inside her head, and has never been more thankful for a friend answering on her behalf.

“Naw, that’s just Bonnie being Pastor Rob’s daughter,” Grace says, laughing. “The spiel comes out sometimes. The senioritis was rough last semester, wasn’t it, Bonnie? I got that email where you said you had to pull two all-nighters in a row to get work done.”

Bonnie’s overheated brain has calmed down in the time it took Grace to finish speaking. “Yeah,” she says with a laugh that comes out far too breathy. “Sorry. I actually didn’t get much sleep last night, either. I’m a bit out of it.”

“Wanna Monster?” Marcy asks, picking up a drawstring backpack from the ground to fish out the energy drink. “I had to pull some all-nighters last semester, too; it’s rough.”

“Oh, no. No, thank you,” Bonnie says. Marcy just sets the bag back down with a shrug, adjusting her tiny tank top.

This is going to be a long week.


	2. skinned knees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Marcy's aggressively forward and Bonnie's reflexively evasive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you guys so much for the attention in the comments last time! here's a quick update, since it's been so long. :/ third chapter should be on the way soon.
> 
> warnings: marcy is a bit pushy in this chapter. nothing sexual happens. she apologizes when she realizes that bonnie is upset.

Bonnie trips over a tree root, spilling her notebook, Bible, and pens into the dirt.

“Whoa, careful.” Marcy gives Bonnie a hand up as she collects her things. Bonnie briefly savors the feeling of her hand in Marcy’s. During breakfast, Marcy mentioned that she plays bass guitar. She can feel the callouses on Marcy’s long, graceful fingers where they brush her wrist. “You alright?”

Bonnie realizes she’s been standing there dumbly for more than a few seconds, and snatches her hand away like it’s been burned. Heat quickly floods her cheeks. “Yeah, I’m fine! Thanks." She winces as she rubs the onionskin pages of her Bible, some of which are creased and dirty.

“Well we'd better get back to the cabin so you can clean up.”

Bonnie notices that both her knees are skinned, something that she somehow didn’t realize. Good grief, she’s a mess. She’s never, ever had this kind of reaction to another person before, and she begins walking as if in a daze. What kind of a role model is she? She’s been making sure the younger girls have their bug spray and sunscreen, reminding them to wear close-toed shoes at night and stay out of the leaves, but deep down she, herself, is losing her composure.

Bonnie sets her things in her bunk and heads into the bathroom. Marcy follows with the first aid kit. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Bonnie’s brow furrows as she scrubs one of her knees with soap and water. “What?”

“I don’t know. It just seems like you zoned out for a minute there.”

“Sorry,” Bonnie mumbles.

“Don’t have to be sorry. I just—is there anything I did?”

Bonnie’s not sure what to say. “No! You’re fine.” Bonnie smiles wanly.

Marcy’s eyes narrow a bit. “You like me, don’t you?” she says slyly, pushing up to sit on the bathroom counter next to the sink where Bonnie’s standing. Today she’s wearing plain black running shorts that ride up on her thighs as her smooth legs flex.

“What?” Bonnie flushes again, her stomach bottoming out. She hurriedly grabs some paper towels to dry up.

“You like me,” Marcy repeats. “You liked it when I did this.” She reaches out to take Bonnie’s right hand again. When Bonnie looks up, her eyes are glinting.

“Marcy!” She removes her hand from the other girl’s, crossing her arms. “Don’t! There are younger girls here.”

“We’re alone right now.” Marcy moves to put a foot up on the table, bending her knee and pulling the shorts down farther. Soft, faded stretch marks slash her thigh. Bonnie just takes the first aid kit from Marcy’s hands and turns away, putting band-aids on her knees.

“Oh c’mon, Bon, don’t be like that.”

_Bon._ She's not sure when that nickname became a thing, but she’s longing to hear it in Marcy’s voice again. Almost without meaning to, she glances back up, looking Marcy in the eye. “I don’t know what you’re getting at here, but I’m not a lesbian.”

Marcy leans back against the wall, cool as a cucumber. “You sure? I mean, you’re bi at least. You seem pretty into me.”

“Stop it!” she snaps. She closes her eye and takes a deep breath. “Just stop. I can’t, Marcy. It would be wrong.”

There’s a brief pause where anxiety creeps into Bonnie, and she’s worried that perhaps someone overheard them. But Marcy finally says, “Okay. I’m sorry if I pushed you.”

And just like that, Bonnie came out to someone for the first time.


End file.
